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0 Fresh clean water, or in other words the water we generally use in our day-to-day lives, is less than 1% of the global water availability. With the increasing population, it is becoming more and more difficult to cope with providing the global population with a clean water supply, making the efforts to conserve water a necessity.
These efforts don’t necessarily need to be extravagant. You can take a step from the comfort of your own home by doing something as simple as turning off the faucets when they are not required during daily activities such as soaping the dishes during dishwashing. Continue reading the post to discover 10 simple ways to save water and make a difference!
To learn more about sustainable living, head over to our post on 16 Sustainable Living Ideas to Incorporate in Daily Life.
What is Water Conservation?
Water conservation is the practice of protecting, preserving, and controlling water and its resource usage to ensure efficient consumption and reduce unnecessary wastage.
Here’s why water conservation is crucial:
- Approximately four billion people or 50% of the world’s population face severe water scarcity for at least one month each year.
- Around 25% of the world’s population, which is around two billion people, are in countries that don’t have enough water availability.
- Approximately 700 million people are expected to be forced to leave their homes due to water scarcity by 2030.
- By 2050, around 50% of the world’s population is estimated to live in places with severe water insufficiency.
- By 2040, a quarter of the children worldwide will be in regions with insufficient water availability.
10 Ways to Conserve Water in the Home
You can reduce your indoor household water usage by approximately 35% through efficient water-saving techniques, which is equivalent to saving 44,000 gallons of water in a household that uses 130,000 gallons every year. Following are a few simple, easy and efficient ways to achieve this:
Fix Leaky Toilets:
An average toilet with a leak can waste approximately 200 gallons of water every day, adding up to more than 6,000 gallons per month.
You can figure out if your toilet is leaking or not by doing a simple food colouring test. Add a few drops of food colouring into your toilet tank and wait for 15 to 20 minutes. If you notice a colour change in the toilet bowl’s water then you most definitely have a water leak between the toilet tank and the toilet bowl.
Another easy way to detect a toilet leak is by keeping an eye on the water level in the toilet bowl. Your toilet is probably leaking if it’s higher or lower than the normal water level.
Don’t Flush Cigarette Butts and Tissues
A single flush for a cigarette butt or tissue usually wastes somewhere between 5 to 7 gallons of water.
Therefore, avoid using your toilet as an ashtray for your cigarette and a dustbin for your tissue!
Reduce Water Wastage Through Flush by Placing a Water Bottle in the Toilet Tank
Approximately 33% of water wasted in a household is due to flushing. That is almost as much water a day as you drink throughout a whole month.
The best way to avoid this is to fill around one to two inches of a one-litre plastic water bottle with pebbles and fill the rest with water. Place this water bottle in one corner of the toilet tank such that it doesn’t hinder the operating mechanism. This small trick may help save as much as 5 gallons or more of water every day.
If you have a bigger toilet tank then you can even place two water bottles and double the savings.
Reduce Shower Times
A single shower uses over 16 gallons of water. This number adds up to one trillion gallons of water throughout the US for a single year!
You can substantially save water while showering by reducing shower times by turning off the shower during soaping up or shampooing. You can also install a shower timer to reduce the overall shower time to conserve water.
Install Flow Restrictors
One of the best ways to conserve water throughout your house is to get flow restrictors for showers and taps in bathrooms and the kitchen. They are easy to install and each one can save up to 5,000 gallons of water every year.
Don’t Keep the Tap Open While Brushing Your Teeth
One of the simple and efficient ways to save water is to turn off the tap while brushing your teeth. You can save as much as 8 gallons of water by turning off the tap while brushing your teeth in the morning and the evening!
Keep an Eye on Leaking Pipes and Faucets
A single leaky faucet with a drip rate of one drip per second can lead to a water wastage of over 3,000 gallons per year!
The best way to check for leaking pipes and faucets is to do a water meter test. It’s quite simple; all you have to do is turn off all the water faucets and check the water meter. If it’s still reading then you have a leak.
Sometimes, the leak is quite subtle so leave the faucets off for a couple of hours and crosscheck the previous and current reading for a change.
Don’t Use Your Automatic Dishwasher for Small Loads
The best way to save water while dishwashing is to run a full load rather than a few dishes. This is because If you run the dishwasher with only a few dishes, you might end up using more water per dish cleaned, and the energy efficiency of the appliance could be compromised as well.
Don’t Use Your Automatic Washing Machine for Small Loads
Similar to automatic dishwaters, automatic washing machines are designed to be more water and energy-efficient when they are fully loaded. Therefore, when you run them with small loads, you end up using more water per cloth, which leads to more water wastage.
Don’t Over Purchase
One of the best ways to conserve water and reduce your water footprint is to avoid over-purchasing. This might seem bizarre but most of the items utilise quite a bit of water during their production, and therefore, when they aren’t utilised properly, it leads to indirect water wastage.
For instance, the cotton required to produce a single pair of jeans uses around 1800 gallons of water.
5 Ways to Conserve Water in the Yard
Outdoor water use accounts for around 30% of a household’s total water usage. This percentage can go as high as 60% for arid regions. Keeping these numbers in view, it’s crucial to employ ways to conserve water in the yard.
Only Water Your Lawn When It Needs It
One of the simplest ways to save water in the yard is to step on the grass and see if it bounces back when you step away. If it does, this means it doesn’t need water right now.
Always Deep Soak the Lawn!
Most of us are in the habit of spraying our lawn rather than deep soaking it. As a result, we end up using more water than required because the hydration doesn’t reach the roots where it’s required, rather, it stays on the surface of the plants and eventually gets evaporated.
Therefore, next time ensure you are deep-soaking the lawn and that the water reaches the roots rather than staying on the surface for maximum efficient hydration.
Arrange Your Sprinklers such that It Doesn’t Waste Water
One of the easy yet often overlooked ways to save water in the yard is to arrange or position your sprinklers such that they only spray water on the plants or the grass, rather than the surrounding areas that don’t require water.
In addition to this, avoid watering your lawn on windy days as the wind may carry away a significant percentage of water from the areas where it’s actually required.
Use Mulch to Reduce the Evaporation Rate
Another efficient way to save water in the yard is by adding a layer of mulch around your trees and plants. This simple yet effective technique acts as a moisture guardian, slowing down evaporation and keeping your garden lush and hydrated.
Avoid Using Water to Clear Out Your Driveways, Sidewalks and Steps
Ditch the practice of using a water hose to clear out your driveways, sidewalks and steps as it wastes thousands of gallons of water. Instead, use a broom to clear them out.
Relevant sustainable living posts that you might enjoy reading:
- 5 Best Portable Solar Panels of 2023
- 3 Best Environmentally-Friendly Water Filters 2023
- 9 Best Reusable Grocery Bags 2023
- Plastic Pollution | 12 Ways on How to Stop Using Plastic
- 7 Best Biodegradable Garbage Bags of 2023 (Contains Compostable Options)
